
From our fabulous News Hawks!
Have you seen a TG-related news story online or in your local paper? Send it in to TGF and become a News Hawk! Don't assume we know everything that's out there, because you are our eyes and ears. To file a story, send it in to Cindy .
What Are Gay-Bashers Afraid of?
Contributed by Jodie Miller
via The Washington Post Company by William Raspberry
Monday, November 2, 1998
Just what is it they are afraid of? The question occurs to me whenever I hear of assaults on homosexual men and women. It occurred to me last month when some young Wyomingites, apparently motivated by anti-gay bias, beat Matthew Shepard to death.
And it occurs to me now that Matthew "Alex" McLendon has been driven out of his Carrollton, Ga., high school for dressing -- and apparently for being -- like a girl.
You know the sad case of Shepard, the 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, who was lured from a local bar, pistol whipped and left tied to a fence outside Laramie. He died without ever regaining consciousness.
Now let Dan Sewell of the Associated Press tell you about 15-year-old Alex.
Patrick Nelson had heard there was a cross-dressing boy enrolled at his high school. But darned if he could figure out just who it was.
"I looked for him the first couple weeks. The honest truth -- I didn't even know," Patrick said.
One day, he was talking about the mystery to a friend, who smiled and pointed to the pretty blonde at the desk next to his. "I said, 'No way, that's too weird!' " Patrick recalled. "Then I thought about it, and I said, 'So what's so weird about that?' "
Plenty, it turns out, at least in the minds of the people who run the small, private Georgian Country Day School. After a meeting of the school board, Alex was given an ultimatum: Withdraw or face expulsion.
Not for cross-dressing, of course. Not even for being gay. Alex says he's not homosexual. No, the boy was cited for wearing a tongue ring. Maybe it was just coincidental that he'd been called on the carpet earlier for his dress, makeup and hair style.
A classmate and friend in whose home Alex occasionally had spent the night said her pal (whom she still thinks of as female) was good-natured and harmless, not causing any sort of problem. "She got along well with everybody. She wasn't trying to change anybody to be like her or anything."
The friend's mother, a drama teacher at the school, said she popped unannounced into her daughter's room the first couple of times Alex stayed over, just to be on the safe side.
"They'd be sitting there doing hair or painting nails, and I said to myself, 'This is a girl,' " she said.
Alex would pretty much buy that description. He calls himself "about 95 percent girl," adding that he doesn't consider himself homosexual. "I just look like a girl, and I dress like a girl. It wasn't flamboyant, not sequins or anything."
Granted Alex's aberrant dress might have posed a problem for school officials trying to maintain a dress code, but it strikes me as a problem that could have been handled in a high school of 50 kids. That is, if anyone wanted to handle it. Instead, the officials reacted as though to a threat, and I ask again: What could they have been afraid of?
What are gay-bashers afraid of? What are the benevolent, let-us-fix-you, born-again homophobes afraid of? What are those of us who consider ourselves enlightened, but who still get a little uneasy in the presence of the obviously gay, afraid of?
Surely we don't fear for our physical safety; we don't imagine that people such as Matthew Shepard or Alex McLendon are going to beat us up or rape us. We don't think they are going to tempt us into homosexuality. I don't even see how we can look at some girlish boy -- and I see them as young as 2 or 3 -- and see sin. What are we so afraid of?
Whatever it is, the fear may be waning. Shepard is dead, of course, and one Wyoming man was heard to say on network TV that, as a gay man, he should have expected such treatment. But the outpouring of students at the University of Wyoming shows another -- I suspect more typical -- view of things.
Similarly, while officials of the Georgian school were having their let's-try-not-to-look-too-ignorant conniptions over young McLendon, the boy's schoolmates were rallying to his defense. Most members of his class -- including some of the boys -- wore bows in their hair as a token of protest, until the principal ordered them removed.
Can it be that we are, in spite of ourselves, raising a generation of young people whose heads are on just a little bit straighter than our own? Can they have been listening to the tolerance we preach and ignoring the bigotry we try to mask?
The handbook of the Georgian Country Day School admonishes the students to accept "diversity in opinion, culture, ideas, behavioral characteristics, attributes or challenges."
You suppose those kids actually take it seriously?
Italy Doctor Seeks World's First Penis Transplant
Contributed by Jodie Miller, Jamie Fenton, and Sharon Marie
via Reuters By Philip Pullella
Tuesday November 3 11:36 AM EDT
ROME (Reuters) - A leading Italian plastic surgeon who has asked health
officials for permission to carry out the world's first penis transplant
said Tuesday that he already had three patients ready to undergo the
operation.
"This is not like the Bobbit case, where his penis was re-implanted,"
Professor Nicolo Scuderi said referring to the famous case of John Wayne
Bobbit, whose penis was re-attached in 1993 after his wife had cut it off.
"This would be the first time a penis is transplanted from one body to
another, whether it be from a living body or a corpse," he told Reuters
in an interview in his office at Rome's Umberto I hospital, Italy's
largest.
"Technically this would not be a very complicated operation...a
transplant is easier than re-attachment," he said.
But Scuderi said it was not clear if a person who received a transplanted
penis would be able to have an erection.
Scuderi made headlines Tuesday when a Rome newspaper first reported his
recent request to the health ministry.
He said he was spurred to make the request after French doctors performed
their own surgical first when they transplanted an arm and a hand to an
amputee.
Three people have told Scuderi they would be willing to undergo the
operation.
Two are women who have received legal permission to undergo sex change
operations and would receive transplanted penises.
He said the third is a man who had had his penis amputated in a sex change
operation to become a woman but has since "realized it was a mistake"
and wants to return to being a man, Scuderi said.
Scuderi's surgical team already carries out penis reconstruction surgery
for sex change operations and amputee cases, including those where penises
have to be cut off because of cancer. This is usually done by using
forearm muscles.
"We are ready. We are just waiting for the OK," he said.
The penis transplant operations could take place by twinning sex-change
patients. A man who wanted to become a woman could donate his penis to a
woman who wanted to become a man.
He said penises could also be donated by clinically dead patients on life-
support equipment, which is a main source of other transplant organs such
as hearts, lungs and livers.
"We can restore vascularity, we can restore sensitivity to the organ but
we don't know how much sensitivity and function will be regained," he
said.
Scuderi said whether a patient who received a transplanted organ could
have an erection was still an unanswered question.
"This is a main concern, a main question and maybe the answer will only
be possible after the surgery," he said, adding that there could be large
variations in the results.
Scuderi acknowledged that ethical questions would have to be addressed,
particularly if the risks involved, including immunological ones, could be
justified since the penis was not a vital organ.
"Plastic surgery always favors innovation and breaking new frontiers. I
don't think that I am the only one that wants to do this type of surgery,
I just want to be sure that this type of surgery will benefit the
patient," he said.
"I don't want only to be the first one. The important thing is to see if
the (health ministry) ethical committee will allow this operation. I asked
for the ministry's consent because I want to be sure that it is the best
thing to do," he said.
Scuderi said that at least at the beginning he would turn down any
eventual requests from men who wanted to receive a transplanted organ
larger than their natural one.
"For the moment the answer is 'no' because the surgery is very
complicated and very risky surgery. It's not an aesthetic procedure," he
said.
Gay Drag Queen Shot Nearly to Death in Baltimore, Rally Fri. Nov. 6 in Balt.
Person Shot Six Times in Anti-Gay, Anti-Drag Violence in Baltimore
via GAIN remailer
Baltimore, MD - Less than a month after gay college student Matthew Shepard
was viciously murdered in Laramie, Wyoming, a gay drag queen living in
Baltimore, Maryland was shot six times - nearly to death -- by youths saying
that they would "not allow drag queen faggots" into their neighborhood.
The Shooting
On Wednesday, October 28 at approximately 9 p.m., 31-year-old Leonard "Lynn"
Vines, a lifetime resident of Baltimore, walked onto the 200-block of Maderia
Street (in eastern Baltimore). He was going to pick up a key from his
cousin's house. A large group of young men and women, perhaps 20 of them,
were hanging out on the street. Leonard heard one of them say "Hey y'all,
there's a drag queen faggot." One of the youths told Leonard that they
"didn't allow no drag queen faggot bitches" to come through the street.
Leonard said that he didn't want any trouble. While he was explaining that he
was there to pick up from his cousin a key to an apartment he was thinking of
renting in the neighborhood, one of the youths struck him in the face.
When Leonard repeated that he didn't want any trouble, another of the youths
pulled out a gun and shot him six times - twice in the arm, twice in the
chest, once in the back, and once in the shoulder. Then all of the youths
sauntered off leaving a seriously wounded and bleeding Leonard behind on his
cousin's front stoop.
Quick Action by Firefighter Saved Life
Luckily for Leonard, a man working at the fire station around the corner heard
the shots and brought the ambulance immediately, meeting Leonard's cousin who
frantically flagged him down in the alley. Leonard was taken to Johns Hopkins
University Hospital, where doctor's expressed dismay at the violent attack and
surprise that Leonard did not die en route to the hospital.
Leonard Vine is Recovering, Case is Under Investigation
Leonard spent a week in the hospital before being released into his mother's
care on the evening of Tuesday, November 3. Given the number of times he was
shot and the extent of his injuries, his doctors expect him to have a long,
slow recovery. He is currently using a wheelchair, and it will be some time
before Leonard can return to his regular job with a housekeeping agency.
The case continues to be under investigation by the Baltimore Police
Department, Eastern District. The perpetrators are thought by many to be
local youths. Leonard believes that the police have caught the man who
punched him, but they have not yet caught the shooter.
Take Back the Street Rally and Call for Hate Crimes Legislation
A Rally to Take Back the Street in Baltimore and End the Violence Vigil is
being organized by Leonard's aunt, Beverly Vines, also a Baltimore resident.
At this point, Leonard plans to attend. It will be held on Friday, November
6, at 5:30 p.m. on the 200 block of Maderia Street (between Orleans and
Fayette Streets) where the assault took place. People from the neighborhood,
local officials, gay rights activists, and others from the community and
around the state are expected to attend.
"We are grateful that Leonard Vines lived through this attack on his life. We
are outraged at the level of hate and violence targeted at gay people and
people who do not conform to our society's rigid gender norms," said Nancy
Meyer, Board Co-Chair of the Free State Justice Campaign (a Maryland political
organization working for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights). "It
is not acceptable for a person to be shot simply because of who they are."
Liz Seaton, FSJC Executive Director, "What happened in Wyoming is happening
everywhere and it is happening here. It is time for people to wake up, to
recognize that bias does lead to violence, and to take action. Fair-minded
citizens must take a stand that anti-gay bias is not acceptable under any
circumstance. Until attitudes change, individuals in our community need
protection. We call on officials at every level of government to pass hate
crimes legislation immediately."
Rally Location
The Rally will be held on the 200 block of Madeira Street where the assault on
Leonard Vines took place The 200 block is located in eastern Baltimore
(northeast of Baltimore Harbor), between Orleans Street and Fayette Street.
Go north from Baltimore Harbor on Calvert or Gay Streets, turn right (east)
onto Orleans Street and you will run into Madeira Street. Please bring
candles.
Farmer swaps wellies for stilettos to make ends meet
Contributed by Sabrina
By A J McIlroy of The Telegraph
A farmer is moonlighting as a "drag queen" because falling milk quota prices mean he cannot make a living from his cattle.
Colin Hile, a 35-year-old father of two, from Bridport, Dorset, swaps his wellies and farm clothes every night for stiletto heels and an assortment of glamorous dresses. He includes impressions of Shirley Bassey and Tina Turner in his act at West Country pubs, clubs and hotels, and also delivers birthday "Dame Edna-o-grams" to unsuspecting victims.
"I've been forced to take it up as things are not going well and I have been badly hit by EC milk quotas," he said last night.
"Over the last 12 months the price of milk has gone from 25p a litre to 17p, which is a huge difference. I am a struggling farmer who has diversified into something a little unusual to survive. The milk quota is really at a ridiculous price and things are not going well. It forced me into doing something different - but now I have found that I really enjoy it."
Mr Hile, who has given himself the stage name of Leo Perry, counts Dame Edna among his favourite impressions. "I enjoy doing the Shirley Bassey and the Tina Turner, but Dame Edna is the one I have the most laughs with," he said.
His wife, Joanna, 25, has given him her fullest support, he said, although others in his family and circle of friends had taken a little more convincing about his drag act.
There have been a number of embarrassing moments."I needed a white mini-dress for my Tina Turner act and when I went into a clothes shop to buy one I had to tell the assistant it was for me," he said. "After I explained what I was up to she suggested a leopard skin patterned negligee instead, so I went with that. She had to clear out all of the changing rooms so that I could try it on. Clothes are not difficult to find. The hardest thing to get are shoes - I'm a size nine."
Christian Retreat Planned
Contributed by Diane A. Zahn
An informal retreat for transgendered Christians will be held on January 24, 1999 from noon until 7 PM at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Woburn, Massachusetts. This retreat is being coordinated by Ms. Diane Zahn and Ms. Jennifer Jones of the Tiffany Club of New England, a Boston area support group for the transgender community. Meeting space at the hotel for approximately 20 persons is being made available courtesy of the Tiffany Clumb, which is holding it's annual First Event conference from January 21 until noon January 24 at the Crowne Plaza.
The coordinators have also planned to present a seminar as part of the First Event Saturday program entitled "Transgendered and Christian - Hearing the Good News", drawing upon their own Christian faith experiences. We cordially invite all persons, both Christian and non-Christian, with an interest in this perspective to attend the Saturday seminar, as part of the conference program. We want this session to be an uplifting experience, helping people to actively enrich their lives through faith. Our seminar is intended to offer resources for support and an opportunity for testimony, sharing, and discussion.
For the Sunday session, we welcome all persons interested in a spending a time of sharing, reflection, and fellowship focused on expanding and renewing their Christian faith. We have currently reserved meeting space for approximately 20 persons. We would like to and could potentially accommodate more, and make plans for a simple mid day meal via individual donations, if we have an advance headcount and can provide the hotel sufficient notice. An advance headcount of attendees will also help justify the added meeting room expense for Tiffany Club, which is expanding it's Sunday program to help us. If you would like to confirm attendance at the retreat or would like additional information , you can contact us at:
Diane A. Zahn
Surface Mail:
D. A. Zahn
P.O. Box 2176
Monroe, MI 48161
e-mail: damz@sprynet.com
Jennifer Jones
e-mail: jennyj@concentric.net
For general information about the First Event conference, schedule, registration fees, hotel accomodations, or other local information, you may contact the Tiffany Club of New England at:
Tiffany Club of New England
P.O. Box 71
Waltham, MA 02454-0071
Telephone: 781 891 9325 (answered live Tuesdays 7-10 PM)
e-mail: firstevent99@tcne.org or consult the TCNE web site at www.tcne.org.
|